Higher prices ahead
All indicators are showing a steep price increase for memory and storage in 2026.
Brad Gastwirth, for example, says he met with many of the most important players in the market at CES earlier this month, and his analysis suggests there will be a 50% or more price increase in DRAM and NAND.
“Memory and storage are now system-level performance constraints, not secondary components,” says Gastwirth, global head of research and market intelligence at Circular Technology, a supply chain consultancy. With multi-quarter AI infrastructure demand growth by hyperscalers and enterprises, and limited supply, we’re seeing a fundamental reset in demand and supply, he says. “This is not a temporary spike.”
“We’ve been predicting that we were going to start seeing rising memory prices since last summer, so we’ve been well prepared for it,” says Scott Tease, vice president and general manager of AI and high-performance computing at Lenovo’s infrastructure solutions group. He expects prices to go up as much as four-fold compared to the start of 2025. “So very significant.”
“A 64-Gig DIMM, which is a mainstay, a sweet spot memory, right now we’re procuring that in the low two-hundreds,” Tease adds. “That’s likely going to approach $800 for that same exact DIMM in the next few months. Every device we make — this phone, that laptop, our servers — they all have that same memory building block in there. So, it is going to affect the entire industry.”
A January report by TrendForce predicts that DRAM prices will be 55% to 60% higher this quarter compared to the same time last year, while NAND Flash prices will be up 33% to 38%.
